Forgotten Fiberglass Vehicles – Plastic Fantastic

Forgotten. War clouds rolling in from Europe had cast a threatening shadow over America’s celebration of speed and chrome when a pivotal event went down at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. The newly formed Owens Corning Fiberglass Corporation debuted its new building insulation, which could also be impregnated with resin and used as a building material. Before the word was classified as an F-bomb in gearhead lexicon, “fiberglass” was code for space-age high tech. Henry Ford himself envisioned ‘glass bodies as a win-win-win for consumers, industry, and agriculture (FoMoCo developed an advanced strain from soy bean and hemp), declaring, “It will be a car of darn-sight better design, in every form. Safer, lighter, and less expensive.” But the Dearborn plant was soon converted to munitions production in support of the war effort. Ford got busy and forgot about the itchy stuff.

Before the VJ Day hangovers wore off, returning GIs were crafting Yankee versions of Euro racers they’d been exposed to overseas. Down in the trenches, sparks flew. Skill levels and results varied. The nicer examples of these home-style coachbuilds were dubbed “sport customs” by author Dan Post in 1947. A new movement was underway. Not everyone was adept at metal shaping, however, and many do-it-yourselfers embraced the newfangled fiberglass as the key to realizing affordable Americanized sports cars. It took time for the technology to trickle down, but in 1951, fiberglass Lancers, Glaspars, and Scorpions were available in both kit and turnkey forms. The party was in full swing. By the end of 1952, more than 20 different cars were offered. The number jumped to 50-plus choices in 1953 (not counting Chevrolet’s new Corvette). Propellants from stock four-bangers to flathead V8s to hot overheads were dropped in, and the hot-rod/custom/sports-car hybrids quickly traversed the apex from novelty act to street cred. Though complex and spendy compared with blue-collar rods and customs, these sport customs were relevant citizens of the American hot-rod microcosm. Then, the sport customs became casualties of another war, just like their coachbuilt brethren before them—this time in Detroit, getting lost in the frenetic cultural cartwheel of the swinging ’60s.

The ’80s were underway before anyone thought to wonder whatever happened to these fiberglass cars. They might still be on the same list with Jimmy Hoffa and Sasquatch if not for Professor Geoff Hacker of Florida. Hacker (aka Captain Curiosity and The Snipe Hunter) and partner Rick D’Louhy are the patriarchs of respect for both the sport-custom era and the early ’50s ‘glassics, which they refer to as “forgotten fiberglass.” Thanks to some gentle nudging from Hacker and D’Louhy, these inextricably linked cousins now enjoy concours-level respectability at locales from Amelia Island to Pebble Beach. The duo has also been writing a book on the subject for several years now, declaring it “the best automotive story never told.”

We visited Hacker’s “Fiberglass Farm” in Tampa and found his eclectic collection to be nearly as vast as his passion. For a look at what his and D’Louhy’s empirical research has uncovered so far, go to ForgottenFiberglass.com for the most comprehensive subject coverage to be found in cyberspace—or anyplace!